Interesting Housing News Links (April 01, 2009)

Calif. — For years, interpreter Yu Ching ended many calls by saying, “Congratulations. You have been approved,” as she helped credit-card companies and mortgage lenders reach a growing share of the Mandarin-speaking market in the U.S.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, did not pay $7,040 in income taxes that she and her husband owed between 2005 and 2007, the White House disclosed Tuesday in another tax-related embarrassment for the new administration.

Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January, and the pace continues to accelerate, but there were a handful of battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released Tuesday.

Challenges Home prices have plummeted since the summer of 2007, devaluing many of banks’ holdings that were backed by mortgages. To prevent further losses, banks largely stopped lending. The economic downturn that ensued led the economy to shed 4.4 million jobs in the past 14 months.

In these uncertain times, most people are seeking protection and safety from the prospect of even more economic turbulence. But another group is going bungee-jumping into the middle of the financial crisis — bravely increasing their investments even as the markets and the financial system collapse and gloomy predictions abound.

Banks that have received federal aid are using the money as they see fit, in some cases providing new loans to customers, retiring debt or buying mortgage-backed securities, a chief investigator told Congress on Tuesday.

This Thursday will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. He was born on Feb. 12, 1809 on a Sunday morning near the small village of Hodgenville, Ky. His father, Thomas Lincoln, had purchased 348 acres of wilderness in 1808 and slowly cleared a small area suitable for farming. The neighbors were a long way from each other. That part of the state was still a wild frontier.